Appointed

DEVOTION HEBREWS APPOINTED Heb 5:1-6 5:1 Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 4 No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father." 6 And he says in another place, "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." NIV There is a lesson to be learned here for our own lives in the sense of being the part of the body of Christ we have been called to be by God rather than trying to determine what we will do because of what we want and like doing. If we connect to Jesus in the garden when he was asking the Father if there was any other way, we can see he did not really want to go to the cross, at least as a man. He was being tempted by his human element, his human feelings of pain and suffering, but nevertheless he submitted to the Father, and did what he was called to do. He was also made our great high priest. God lifted Jesus up, actually himself, but in the form of Jesus, to the highest honor possible. He made everything under his authority. We need to see that we must also be called to a certain task, the perfect plan that God has for our life. Sure, it may be that God implanted a propensity toward a certain talent or skill when he knit us together in our mother’s womb. But have we followed that propensity? Have we figured it out, what God wants for us to do? Are we engaged fully in that activity, being the part of the body we are supposed to be? Are we serving one another as we have been called to do? We cannot take on this honor by our own choice either. We cannot decide on our own what we will do. We cannot say, I will be a great singer, or musician standing on stage having people applaud my great talent. We cannot decide to be a great evangelist or Pastor preaching to big crowds, televising our message, so that many will think we are so spiritual and wise. We cannot vacuum the floors and wash the windows of the church on our own. Whatever our task in the body of Christ is we must be called of God and appointed by Him to that position. Once appointed we must serve with our whole heart as Jesus did. We must hold nothing back, giving all we have, even our life, to being who God wants us to be and what he has called us to do. Doing this, we too will be lifted up and rewarded with all those listed in the seven letters to the churches. We will be given the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. We will not be hurt at all by the second death. We will be given some of the hidden manna, as well as a white stone with a new name written on it. We will be given authority over the nations. We will be dressed in white and our names will never be blotted out of the book of life. God will also write on us our new name. We will be given the right to sit on the throne with Jesus. All that to those who overcome the world, to those who overcome doing their own thing, and serve God with all their heart, mind, and strength, doing what He has appointed us to do.